The more I look at that strikeout by Sean Casey in the top of the ninth last night, the more I’m convinced that his mind must have been elsewhere during this critical moment of the game. How else to explain that mad swat at a ball that was already in the dirt before it reached the plate? The question is… what was on his mind? The fear that parents may take their kids to see the The Dark Knight, thinking it to be escapist fare for young’uns? Was he concerned that the new Sugarland CD is never going to live up to the hype? Myself, I’m convinced that he spent the previous inning conferring with Future Sean Casey, who had just returned from October 2008, and the conversation went something like this:

Future Sean Casey: Hey, I was just here. Well, just here three months from now. But still.

Sean Casey: What were you doing in Anaheim, Future Me?

Future Sean Casey: ALDS, baby. And it ain’t pretty.

Sean Casey: Oh no.

Future Sean Casey: Not for us, mind you. For them.

Sean Casey: Really?

Future Sean Casey: Yep. More of the same. Swept away like the remnants of a Hostess Fruit Pie.

Sean Casey: Do they take it… badly?

Future Sean Casey: Vlad Guerrero quits the Game and goes back to the music business. Chone and Maicer are ordered by the governor to leave California. Anaheim is torched and sunk at sea. Oh, and someone teabags Scioscia during a press conference.

Sean Casey: Well, we have to stop this.

Future Sean Casey: You can’t prevent the future from happening. The course has been set. You can only sit back and watch it roll.

Sean Casey: I can at least give the people of Anaheim something to smile about today. Just watch me!

::Swings horrifically at ball in the dirt for strike three::

Future Sean Casey: ::watching the cheering crowd:: Oh, if they only knew…

Ah, we’ll get ’em in Seattle. Future Mike Lowell says so.